Winfred was seething as he cautiously followed. His thought train went somewhat like this: Must not kill, told the man I wouldn't, not wasting bullets, could be things out here, might hear the noise, must not strangle, don't like people squirming, must not maim, must not slaughter...

Meanwhile his train of vocalization went like this: "Slow the fuck down, kid! You wanna get yourself killed?!"

And in his head, he was dreaming up 'accidents' that could happen to the kids. Nobody would think twice if he told the others they fell off the island running, would they?

He came to a realization: his gun wasn't going to be for bogies on the island, it was going to be for controlling his idiot minions. Companions. Whatever.

The path takes a few twists and turns, but after about five minutes of traversing it the forest abruptly ends and opens up to a field of wildflowers. The forest appears to be at the top of a hill, since the path descends into the field and seems to head towards what could very well be a town if it isn't for the fact that the whole thing looks empty. There appears to be a river that winds its way from the north down into the south, with a lake somewhat northeast of the town-esque-thing.

Almost due east is a large-ish structure which lies across the river- it doesn't look in good repair.

The oddest thing, though, is that the horizon seems to end in a thick line of gray and then clouds and sky. They definitely didn't miss the island. However, these clouds don't seem to flow onto the island, and the air isn't particularly thin for being so high up. However, the sun is uncomfortably bright now that it is no longer semi-blocked by the trees.

It is quite surreal.

Other things can't be seen, though; they're either blocked by the forest or they could be behind landmarks already visible to the explorers.

"Wooooahhh...." Molokidan said, staring at the landscape that had just unfolded before him. "How beautiful!"

His eyes were drawn up to the sky, where he took notice of the wonderful horizon, with big fluffy white clouds, and a pastel blue sky. It was really quite romantic, and he kinda felt like taking a nap. But there was exploring to be done!

He began to skip through the flowers, bending down every now and then to take a sniff of them. They were really quite beautiful, and he was tempted to taste one, but remembered Warren's warning earlier, and thought better of it for once.

Besides, there was more interesting things to look around at. Specifically, the large town-looking thing in the distance!

"HEY MICHAEL!!!" Molokidan shouted in a shrill scream, the way a person would to someone in a neighboring building, vehicle, or aircraft, let alone just a bit down the pathway. "I'M GONNA GO CHECK OUT THAT TOWN THINGY!! OK?????"

Damian glanced at his two companions, hands slung into the pockets of his coat.

"I want to head out, explore a bit. Probably in the opposite direction that the others are heading, but someone should stay behind and run communications. Anyone volunteering for the post, or do I head out on my own?"

"Huh?!" Molokidan stared up at Winfred, completely not understanding what the man was insinuating to him. "What do you mean, bullet through the kneecap? Nope, I've never been shot in my life, mister. Why do you ask? Honestly, I think guns are kinda boring. Do you like guns? I like swords better. How about swords, do you like swords?"

Winfred thought to himself. Taking out the kid's legs would keep him from doing any harm to himself or anyone else, but it would also deprive him of a valuable piece of cannon fodder.

Still, it wouldn't do his conscience any favors to be shooting the kid with no warning he could understand. After this moment of consideration, he said evenly, "It's simple. If you don't quiet and calm the fuck down, I'll fucking shoot out your knees. Do you understand?"

It was extreme, but Molo was a neverending spring of bubbling enthusiasm. Win kinda hated that.

Molokidan simply stared back at Winfred, still contemplating the words that he had just spoken.

He said he's gonna shoot me! SHOOT ME!!! Molokidan's mind was on overdrive now. It had completely tossed out the rest of the words that Winfred had said, and was now just rolling those two words over and over again -- "shoot", the ever-favorite "you".

Molokidan took a leap backwards and looked at Winfred with big, animal-like eyes. He put his head down, as if he was going to do something, and then suddenly. . .

He tossed his hands up into the air, looking at Winfred hysterically. "PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME!!!!" he shouted. "I'LL DO ANYTHING!! JUST DON'T SHOOT ME, OKAY!?!"

"I'll stay here. I might figure out how we're supposed to use our cabin to get back down to the ground. You two enjoy yourselves, and bring some rations from our cabin. Don't even trust the water. It could be poison."

Warren waves, puts on his goggles, and begins to poke around the compartment that they landed in, promptly ignoring his other two companions and thus editing out the rest of the world.

--------------------------------

As they go down the hill towards the town, few other things become visible. Precious few details have become clearer in the few meters they have traveled.

Damian nodded his agreement, glancing about the cabin for supplies. He planned to take only a few of the bare necessities, preferring to travel lightly. With that accomplished, he strode out, expecting Chantelle to follow.

Damian finds ample supplies- more than enough nurtitious wafers and various dried meats and spreads. There's also plenty of bottled water that's been distilled to make it pure. It may taste awful, but it's better than normal water for your water needs. Almost everything is pre-packaged in either paper or some kind of sealed foil wrap, and all of it is negligibly light as well as compact.

Light streams down through the trees as the sun passes over its zenith in the sky, signaling the end of high noon.
-----------------------------------

Outside of the forest, the air is growing warmer and warmer- warmer than air has any right to be in late autumn this high in the sky. Those wearing heavier garments to protect from the cold would be seriously uncomfortable.

Winfred shot Michael a look that might've made an overweight chicken run with fear. Maybe; he wasn't terribly intimidating. His voice was condescending, "The hells you don't. You know this kid? I do. Either we leash him now or he gets us into more crap than a chocobo herd can make in a dragon's lifetime. Trust me on this one."

The glare turned to Molokidan. "Come here. I'll tell you what you have to do."

"Er... well.... I mean... I don't know this person.. er.." Klaus stammered under that slightly intimidating glance. Truth be told, he agrees with the gunman: he would rather Molo be locked up in the crash harness back at the .... the landing pod.

But under the knightly code-of-conduct, one just does not threaten to shoot allies...

And Klaus finally settled on middle ground: "Look... I'll help. Just don't be too rough on him, okays?" he said to Winfred.

Molokidan looked to Winfred with fearful eyes, casting a quick glance at Michael to try and figure out just who's side the rogue magician was on. He crept closer to Winfred, making sure to put space between the two of them, yet close enough so that they were more or less face to face.

Molokidan tried to look his most "intimidating", which really came down to puffing his upper lip out. He tried to look angry, a rather challenging feat for his young face. If anything, he looked like a kid who got slapped on the hand for taking too many cookies before dinner. He stood with his hands on his sides, trying to put his head up proudly. At his small height, though, it really didn't make much of a difference.

His eyes were emotional and fierce, but they didn't seem to hold any real malice behind them. Truthfully, in Molokidan's mind, he just wanted to play around, but this Winfred guy was indeed scaring him. With his limited logistics skills, he was doing what he thought best to avoid more trouble.

Winfred sighed. Molo couldn't help the way he was. He was, after all, just a kid. A chronically stupid kid, but a kid nonetheless. He ate because he was hungry, nevermind the stealing. He yelled because it was hard to get people to pay attention to him. He ran around like a bunny because the island was exciting. Win had been like him before, and in some ways still was. It wasn't right to be quashing him like this.

But it had to be done. Behavior like that was going to put them all in danger. He had seen firsthand the destruction such unthinking enthusiasm could bring, and damned if he'd let it happen again. Besides, a little fear was good when he could get it.

His tone was softer than it had been before, but still commanding. He was trying to come across as reasonable, as opposed to shooting someone's kneecaps out. "Okay, listen. I know this is a great adventure, and an exciting new place, and all that. But there are some rules you need to follow if we're going to get out of this alive.

First, keep your voice down when we're right here. Second, if you find something, come and tell us before fiddling with it. Third, don't just go dashing off. And I don't think I need to tell you this, but if you find something dangerous, find help. That's not so hard, is it?"

"Okay. . ." Molokidan listened closely to Winfred, taking in all that was spoken to him. The man's disposition had certainly changed from what it had been at first, and that put Molokidan at ease. Winfred didn't seem liable to put a few holes in him now. . .at least, Molokidan didn't think so.

"Okay...I won't touch stuff until I tell you guys, I'll be quiet, I won't run off, and if I see something dangerous, I'll find help." Amazingly, the kid was suddenly speaking in a normal, "indoor" voice, to Michael and Winfred. He nodded his head. "Don't worry, I won't do anymore bad stuff." he said. "We're a team, and we need to protect each other, so I will make sure not to do any stupid stuff again!!" His voice started to rise at the end of the sentence, but he quickly caught himself at brought it back down. Seems like the kid had a few brains, after all!

"OH-kay!" Molokidan said, stifling his large "OH", and then pointing excitedly over at the town. "Let's head over there! I wonder if people live on this island or anything? And hopefully not, so we can take a lot of treasure." he said, looking to the others for approval.

As they approach the town, it is quite clearly devoid of all life... though for how long is unclear. The condition of the various buildings is very good, and the roads are still in reasonably useable condition. There are probably somewhere in the area of thirty buildings in this place.

In the main square of the little town, there is a somewhat plain fountain that is still running at the intersection of the two main roads that divide the little town into four parts. The various buildings don't have doors but do have doorways, and they don't have shutters but they do have windows, giving the whole village a generally open-air feel.

The village itself is extremely clean and well-ordered, all of the buildings being roughly the same size and made of the same off-white material. Nothing that looks like it could have been a merchant's stall or a vendor's cart is there.

It is, quite honestly, a very boring place. The only movement is coming from the running water of the fountain, which makes a light splashing sound as it pours into the basin of the fountain and is then lost to the plumbing below.

The road that the group took into the town leads westward, back to the forest. To the north is what appears to be an open meadow, to the east is the river they spied earlier, and to the south is a road that goes out of the sight of the adventurers.

A new feature is visible from here, though. A clear lake is what is feeding the river. There doesn't seem to be anything interesting about the lake from where they are, though.
-----------------------------------

As Damian and Chantelle travel along the southeast path, they soon encounter a clearing that opens into a large, rolling field with what looks like a man-sized monument in the middle. The road they're on right now leads to something that looks like a small Acropolis, or an open-air temple. There's also a strange tower directly to the south-east off of the road with no visible entrance from this side.

(Klaus, Winfred, and Molokidan are now in The Village Square, and Chantelle and Damian are at Forest: Southeast Entrance.)

"Nice place..." Klaus said, as he walked into the town "If I ever stop wandering the world, this would most likely be the place to settle down... But this place is just too well-kept for 'abandoned'. Where's everyone?"

Molokidan listened to Winfred and racked his brain, trying to remember what Warren had told him about food and water.

"Let's see. . ." he said, trying his best to think hard about the subject at hand. "When I gave him the nut, he wouldn't let me eat it, because he wanted someone to. . .oh, that's right! He wanted someone to check and see if there was anything wrong with it or not!"

Molokidan looked back at the clear, blue water, gushing out from the fountain. "But I'm so thirsty. . ."

He turned around back to Michael. "Michael!!!" he shout-whispered. "Please come over here really fast so that I can drink water!!"

"Alright, coming, coming" Klaus said loudly from where he was examing a house from its doorway. He walked over to Molo's fountain, and started inspecting it, with astral, smell, touch and taste (in that order)...

"Green coins?" he thought in a corner of the mind, as he checked the water....

Winfred gently lobbed a skin of water at his eager companion Molokidan. Even if it was a waste of water, it didn't look a scarce commodity in these parts. Without waiting to see the result of his toss, he went inside the nearest house to check it out.

As Winfred Whybrew crossed the threshhold of the house, he was confronted with an amazing sight: Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary!

The interior of the house lacks a single stick of furniture (which isn't all that unexpected), as well as any kind of fixtures that one might normally expect of a house. It does, however, have a second storey, which can be conveniently reached by jumping 16 feet into the air through that hole in the cieling.

The interior is as bland as the exterior- the same matte-off white material is all-pervasive, with a few rooms that open from the one that Winfred is currently in, all of which look equally empty from where he is.